[ Album Cover ]

Red (LP)
by Red

Released 1983
Label: Jigsaw Records
Catalogue: SAW 2

[ Reviewed November 2002 ]

It may seem a bit pointless reviewing a release that only came out on LP in 1983 and is not available any more, but please read on.  I can find no other mention of Red on the Internet so felt I needed to do something.  I actually bought this album on the strength of a good review in a British hi-fi magazine; the same issue also praised the excellent Twang Bar King by Adrian Belew which I bought as well.  I had to order Red from my local record shop and the first album that came in was another Red by another Red.  Second time lucky though.  I had a recent spate of transferring LPs onto CD and Red came out wonderfully, it must be about the cleanest LP that I own.  (I use the excellent Waverepair program for this task.  It is specifically designed for the job of recording and de-clicking vinyl.  See www.waverepair.com.)

The music is eight Progressive instrumental tracks; a neat four per side of the LP, and the album length is pretty generous for the good old days.  The titles are typically idiosyncratic such as Daft Tench Swims Backwards, which enabled me to perform some Google searches and be confident of the (negative) results.  The music is obviously inspired by mid-70's King Crimson and naming the album after the great album Red can be no coincidence.  The music is a staple of serious-sounding rocky guitar with the keyboards mostly taking a back seat filling in colours, much as King Crimson was.  It has a jazz-rock feel to it and some of the quieter bits are more in the vein of early Brand X; at times it could almost be them with the guitar and bass sounds.  There are also hints of Colosseum II in the way the drums and guitar are driving the pace onwards.  Having said all of this they have their own distinctive style and I haven't got anything else quite like this particular Red.  Each track is involving and takes a lot of twists and turns before it's done, with varying tempos and textures.  The tunes are pretty memorable as well, and I end up mentally humming them while doing other things.  The band play together in a very tight formation and the sound is helped greatly by the addition of a dedicated percussionist.  Some of the keyboard organ sounds may seem a bit dated to some but I think they fit in well with the overall presentation.  All of the band members are good musicians but I have to single out Fitzgibbons on guitar for special mention.  Some of the tracks feature the rest of the band seemingly jamming away while he performs some lengthy and frantic soloing over the top, almost in an Allan Holdsworth style.  In fact listening to the album, he is soloing pretty well constantly, hardly at rest any of the time.  It must be tiring is all I can say.  Fitzgibbons has all of the writing credits as well.  Silver medal goes to drummer Hockney who is nicely inventive, following the music around.

Over the years I have played Red a huge amount and it's one of my favourites.  Given fresh impetus with a clean CD-R transfer I'm enjoying it all over again, but the instant track access that comes with it in no way tempts me away from playing the album in its entirety.  I would like to use this opportunity to pass my gratitude on to the band for a stirring performance.  This is a lot better than most of the recent Progressive stuff I've heard.  If any of the band try a Web search from now on, hopefully they'll get to here and have a nostalgic smile.

I've included an MP3 version of one of the tracks to give people a chance to hear some of this album.  If any of the band want me to remove it then please let me know.

Tracks:
1.Stiff Colar5:44Stiff Colar.mp3
2.Self-Indulgent Noises4:30
3.Cool And Unapproachable9:10
4.Daft Tench Swims Backwards4:29
5.Turbo-Tortoise5:07
6.Kravat6:58
7.Lost For Words5:06
8.Tonight's The Note6:26
total time 47:30

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Review copyright Steve Bachini